Views sought on Edinburgh tourist tax

Edinburgh City Council is to launch a consultation on its plans to charge a tourist tax of £2 per room, per night to raise extra revenue to match growing tourism demand.

The council has published details of its proposals for a Transient Visitor Levy ahead of the consultation that will last until the end of the year, and claims that the tax would raise an extra £11 million a year to be spent on growing tourism and managing its impact. The proposals suggests either a year-round charge of either two per cent or £2 per room, per night, for all types of accommodation.

The concept of a tourist tax is not universally popular, with the Federation of Small Businesses raising concerns and the Scottish government not considering an option to give local authorities power over unless the long-term interests of the industry were fully recognised. In January 2017, Bath announced plans to become the first UK city to impose a tourist tax on overnight visitors to help offset the £37 million of cuts the local authority is facing over the next five years.